It’s finally here! John, Jessie, & Mike give their picks for their favorite games of 2011. The format is that all titles are valid as long as we’ve played them. This includes retro games. See who comes out on top as we pit titles against each other such as Skyrim, Mass Effect 2, Donkey Kong Country Returns, Portal 2, Infinity Blade, Mario Sunshine, and more!

It has been about 10 months of our review of the highly controversial game Metroid: Other M. After putting this game in the back of my mind for a while, I came across some recent comments made about the game and felt that I had a better feel about my true feelings about this game.

To this day, I still give Team Ninja credit for taking on the neigh impossible task of taking a beloved franchise in a new direction.

The two main elements that tugged at the nerves of fans are the presentation of Samus’ character and the linear gameplay.

While the story didn’t bother me as much as others, there are some undeniable problems. Samus has been a silent loner in all the games to this point. This makes creating her character difficult for the writers because her personality has been left to the devices of the gamer, therefore everyone will have a different expectation of who Samus should be. That being said, I have a difficult time seeing the Samus we are presented with in Other M as the same character we’ve seen over the years in any situation.

The scene where Samus is presented as a child is one that fans love to site. Apparently this alludes to her watching Ridley killing her parents, which can be seen in comics. The problem is that it is not presented in a way that will make that connection for the gamers that haven’t read the comic. Also, at this point in the series, Samus has defeated Ridley several times already.

As far as the gameplay, I don’t have a problem with Team Ninja breaking a mold and making a linear Metroid, however, if you’re going to do that, do it right. There were still items that you would need to get after you get more abilities, but the levels were clearly designed to be traversed in a specific direction, making exploration tedious. The user is not intended to retrace his or her steps in highly linear games like God of War. Can you imagine running backwards through a God of War game for more than 60 seconds? Either be liner or don’t. Other M didn’t know what it wanted to be.

Despite all that, I will be more than eager for the next Metroid title.
-John